Morgan Stanley surveyed some Tesla investors and found what Wall Street had been speculating for some time: the “involvement” of the CEO, Elon Musk with Twitter “has contributed to the momentum of negative sentiment” on the title.
Recall that in October Elon Musk bought Twitter for 44 billion dollars, launching a series of controversial decisions. On his first day as CEO of Twitter, the entrepreneur fired half of his staff, including managers.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said the poll results strengthened his views on the negative impact of the Twitter saga on Tesla “and could put some degree of downward tilt in Tesla’s fundamentals.”
“We see a window of buying opportunity near our $150 downside case,” Jonas said in a note. The analyst maintained his buy rating on the stock and a target price of $330, which represents more than 80% upside.
Tesla has lost about $500 billion in market capitalization in the past two months.
The stock is down about 20% since Oct. 28, when the Twitter deal was struck.
In addition, Tesla stock is down more than 40% year-to-date, the worst stock-market loss in the company’s history, compared to a 17% decline in the S&P 500.